My coworker just revealed to me his method of pool care....

[Big Splash]

My bother has owned a plaster pool for about 20 years. It's about 30,000 gallons I'm guessing. He never tests for anything and the only thing he ever puts in his pool is 12.5% 5 gal jugs liquid chlorine about every 1-2 weeks. No CYA, MA, Borax, baking soda or anything else other than chlorine. To him, if it's clear it's all good.

I and all my extended family have swam in his pool often before getting mine up and running this (my first) year. I've never known him to have any water quality issues. No one has ever gotten sick that I'm aware of. He's had some equipment and plumbing issues recently. It's impossible to know if they are related to age or pH imbalance (or both). He was the first to warn me against going the pool store for help before I found all the info I needed online. That said, he really doesn't know anything about his pool chemistry and doesn't care to. I guess after 20 years of success, who am I to argue???

He came by to check up me a couple weeks ago and was pleased to see how nice things were going. I told him about all the pool geek stuff I now know (via online) and apply to keep my water sparkle. I offered to come by his place and test his water suggesting that maybe a part of his equipment issues. He was bit hesitant I guess because he'd rather not know. Either that or he's surprised his little brother figured it all out so quickly. Maybe I'll just go crash his pool with my test kit and see what happens

 

[momofmany]

Ha! What did she prefer to sanitize the pool with?

She said the only thing that was 'safe' was to use the shock from the store and the pucks. I tried telling her that it is basically the same thing, w/o cya and she told me I was crazy. I just laughed, b/c I know who the real crazy one is

 

[mr_gunite]

Just to update.....the truth finally slipped out.

I was referring a third coworker to TFP and the BBB method of pool maintenance within earshot of the "puck-master" from the original post in this thread. Puck-master chimed in just as coworker #3 was explaining to me how he's been trying to cope with his algae-ridden AGP ever since it's been installed last year. I told him what I think he should do, and referred him here as well, when puck-master disclosed to both of us that HIS pool also has been algae-ridden all season, and he just keeps dropping bags of granulated shock products in every weekend. I'm guessing he completely forgot the last "conversation" about pools that we had.

I just quietly chuckled to myself and left it at that.

 

[n240sxguy]

My wife has a friend of hers over with her kids to hang out and swim at least once a week. Big half day fun fest. She told my wife last week that she had gone to someone else's house with a pool almost identical to ours. It was cloudy and not pleasant for her kids at all. She wouldn't even get in. I gave sparklypoolitis to someone who doesn't even own a pool. Woohoo! That conversation also went a long way toward reassuring my wife that I'm not crazy for testing and tweaking on the pool all the time.

 

[RobbieH]

Regarding the comments about backflushing a sand filter being the solution to high CYA, I don't see how that could be the case unless the filter is way undersized and has to be backflushed really often. Backflushing a filter only takes a small portion of the pool's water to complete, and using my pool as an example, I only backflush 2 or 3 times per year.

 

[n240sxguy]

I'm guessing these are people that back flush as part of a weekly pool ritual, and let it go for 10-15 minutes.


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[chiefwej]

I live in AZ now and I use TFP methods to maintain my pool. I have a SWG so my ongoing chemical cost are limited to a gallon of acid every month or so.

But, I used to live in New England and I knew nothing about TFP. I just kept a couple 3" tabs in the skimmer and dumped a couple packets of "shock" in about once a week or so during pool season. At the end of the season I drained about half the water when I winterized. I'm guessing that since the season was so short and I was doing a 50% drain at least once a year, my CYA never got too high. With short pool seasons you have a better chance of getting way with dumb luck.

I have a neighbor here who is actually getting away with the same method. It only works because they have a sand filter and her husband frequently backwashes, also when ever it rains a LOT of water flows into their pool. They think I'm just being OCD, testing my pool and having a spreadsheet of the results. Sooner or later they will have a problem and the pool store will be glad to sell them lots of chemicals to "solve the problem". To each there own.